Dealings Whilst Dancing
by A Million Mad Musings
Summary: It is the frosty winter months, and Morgana, as much as she loves to feast, hasn't come here to dance. That is, it seems, until a particularly annoying Warlock arrives early to meet her, amused and wondering about a deal that she has proposed. Could desperate times call for desperate measures? Including teaming up with the one man who is destined to kill her? NO SLASH


**HELLOOOOO EVERYONE! Well…not quite sure what to say about this story. I think the inspiration comes from a few things, but I think mostly from long hours awake in bed because your mothers trying to get you off 'Teenage time'. (This is basically laptop time: me, going to bed at 2 in the morning and lying in till 12) Aww bless you mum your trying. **

**After watching Batman (the film is amazing by the way) my dark plot-bunnies were running crazy because of this particular scene in it, when Cat-woman and Batman have a conversation at a ball similar to this one. Im not to sure if the waltz was invented yet but I have to admit I am not an expert on the details of medieval culture or dance- sorry about that! You might have to ignore that minor blip.**

**After watching all the videos at Comicon this year Katie McGrath (Morgana) said something very interesting about what happened to her in the *SEASON 5 SPOILER ALERT* three year gap between series 4 and 5. Apparently, Morgana has been held captive by someone for two of those three years and in my mind, especially as she said she would be working with Colin (Merlin) more, this is a perfect excuse for the two of them to work together, something that I hope the writers will include in the new season. It also makes way for a perfect opportunity to see BAMF! Dabbling-with-dark! Slightly-has-a-crush-on-Morgana-STILL! Merlin. What can I say? Im a Mergana shipper- im not even sorry! Something which will probably become evident whilst reading this story, but don't worry if you don't ship them- It wont get too heavy, for the sake of keeping all the characters actually IN character. **

***COUPLE OF POINTERS IF YOU CAN'T BE ARSED TO READ THE ABOVE (NOT SURPRISED AND I DON'T BLAME YOU, MY DRABBLES ARE USUALLY LONG WINDED AND BORING- IM NOT CALLED A MILLION MAD MUSUNGS FOR NOTHING YOU KNOW):***

**I am writing this in the hiatus between series 4 and 5 but am writing it as if it is set a couple of years later than that and Merlin is court sorcerer. Morgana has been held captive some years before by someone and she wants revenge in a typical witch crazy style. However, he cannot be found without the help of an enemy or two…**

**Remember, reviews are GOLD DUST to my eyes!**

**Happy reading!**

**A Million Mad Musings xxx**

The moonlight, shining through the grand windows, cast long silvery beams of light into the grand hall. Nobles, servants, lords, and knights danced in the centre of the room with a swish of rich material and laughter. Snowflakes, semi-transparent in the light fell silently through the mountainous view through the windows. It was the depths of winter, but not in Camelot. This place, residing several hundred miles North of the white city was home to a rich and powerful lord that Morgana had already forgotten the name of. Oh well, if your going to a dance just to stock up on food and have a quick wash it generally wasn't required to be on first name basis with a fat lord. Especially if he would execute you just like everyone else in the room if he so much as heard your real name.

It was therefore of the upmost importance, while strolling by herself through the dancing partners, that no-one take notice of her or recognizes her, either because of her face or clothing. This was why Morgana was very pleased when a young man, a tailor, some weeks back, quite taken aback from the beauty of a lone and badly clothed traveler, gave her a dark blue gown to have for free. It was a little rich for her taste, but Morgana learned from her years of being royalty that things usually went more your way with men if they were more distracted by the figure hugging dress you were wearing, rather than the deal and talk he getting himself into. Her jade eyes scanned the crowd for anyone that might recognize her, or someone she could gain something from. Most people came here for things like that. Another reason why she should be here, but so far no-one had come to talk to her. Morgana wished that it was to do with the fact that she was a new face around here, but she knew it was probably more due to the fact that her eyes, though beautiful, betrayed the part of her which was now beyond sanity and help. The kind of eyes that no-one wanted to look at.

That was why she was so surprised when a gentle yet steely hand took hold of her waist and dragged her onto the dancing area in an unyielding waltzes' position, before she could so much as look up into the face of who had _dared_ to do something like that. But what surprised her most, was the face she saw.

"May I have this dance?" Merlin asked in an annoyingly smooth familiar voice, giving her one of his most crooked grins. He was wearing rich, red, warm, nobleman's clothes, which suited him much better than many of the nobles who had gained their clothes and title from their bloodlines surrounding them, instead of effort as he had. He still wore his old boots that he always had, but what surprised her most was that there was a distinct lack of neckerchief or hooded cloak that had become his iconic style. He too, must be in disguise. He certainly didn't look like the idiotic manservant that she once knew all those years ago. He looked grown, mature. It suited him that clothing, as if he was born to wear it. It startled Morgana to remember that he probably was born to wear it, as, if the rumors were true, his father, Balinor, was a noble, making him hereditary noble aswell. This taking aside his less than convenient status as Illegitimate of course. She also noticed that he seemed to be carrying no weapon. Unlike her. She at this moment had a dagger strapped to her leg under her dress. In her books you could never be too careful. All this, and she was still too startled to speak, let alone fry him with a bolt of lightning for making her dance with him; all she could do was to stare at him in a highly undignified and shocked manner.

He chuckled, taking in her expression. "Don't look so surprised Morgana you're the one who asked me to be here." Talking face to face much physically closer than they had been in years, Morgana could see his azure eyes, instead of focusing on her when he spoke to her, were darting around the room just as hers was not a minute ago, but for quite different reasons. His eyes were alert for danger, taking in every possibility and scrutinizing it in the blink of an eye. A talent that must have taken years of practice to perfect.

"I _asked_ you to meet me in the woods two miles south of here at midnight." She said wretching his attention and gaze back to her. "It's not my fault you're useless at telling the time."

He, obviously, was a step ahead like he always was. "Ah but you see I did go there earlier, only to be greeted by a rather begrudged dragon going by the name of Aithusa I believe, who ever so kindly told me that you were residing _here_ of all places." There goes her plan of forcing him to comply with the help of a growling dragon.

Being a high priestess of the triple goddess, she had the ability to control and work with dragons. But only the white ones, as the sign of her deity was a white dragon. Merlin however, being the pain that he was and being the last Dragonlord, had power and dominance over _her_ power and dominance. She tutted. She should have thought about that. "Dragonlords." She said with a rolling of her eyes and as much distaste as she could muster.

"Priestesses." he said copying her tone, but it was obvious to both of them that his was in a playful way. They fell into silence for a while, both looking over the others shoulder for danger.

"So why _did _you ask for me?" he inquired gently. Their heads, almost resting on each others shoulders, were very close, so there was no need for him too speak loudly.

"I never knew you could dance Emrys, clumsy fool like you I would imagine you had two left feet." She said quickly, avoiding the question. She did not particularly want to discuss this somewhere where they could be overheard. That could ruin everything.

"Being court sorcerer for a few years you do have to go to quite a lot of feasts, celebrations, the like." He said, entertaining her sudden change of direction. "So over time you do pick up the odd waltz of two. And," he leaned in closer as to whisper softly into her ear "amusing as I find it of your refusal to call me Merlin, and distracting as it is of how beautiful you look tonight out of black and in a backless dress that is being eyed by more than a _few_ pairs of eyes in this room, including myself, your avoiding the question. It _is_ surprising that you decided to come here of all places though."

"You know me Emrys, I could never could miss out on a dance." She smirked sarcastically. "And how do you know I haven't have just bought you here to kill you?"

"Well," he paused as if he was contemplating the matter. "After dragging me 500 miles away from Camelot just to kill me seems highly unlikely, even for you. So you have a reason but not, it seems, the decency of telling me why you dragged me all this way. Of course, you _could _muster up the courage to tell me in a couple of hours, in the cold, outside, where we would be easily overheard, with an overprotective dragon snapping at my heels _or_ you could tell me now. In the warm."

"We would not be overheard it's in the middle of nowhere I assure you." She said, raising a delicate eyebrow. Of all the things to worry about. She couldn't deny that the other parts weren't true. Because they were. _Especially_ the one about the cold. This far North, in winter, at night, it was freezing even inside.

"Yes, but due to past experience I know the best place to talk is somewhere no-one will expect you to speak about such matters that acquire secrecy." He said with a flourish, obviously pleased at his logic. She pursed her lips. He had a point.

"I require something." Merlin pulled back a little from their odd embrace to look at her face but continued to waltz to the now forgotten music. "Something that only you could give me."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"Access."

"Access?" he repeated brow furrowing and a smile begging to form on his lips. He obviously didn't expect that.

"Yes, to the records you made of every magical person known in the kingdom that I can't _get_ too because of _your _wards." She said with a hiss and revealing a bit more annoyance then she would have liked at the man in front of hers nigh impossible to break enchantments.

He laughed loudly, making a few people look towards the odd dancing couple and making Morgana fume even more. "Oh _those_ records," he laughed a bit more "why on _earth_ do you think that I would give you access, which is never going to happen by the way, to one of the most guarded pieces of writing in the whole of Camelot?"

"Because I have something you want." She said simply. It must have been her tone of voice that immediately made the man in front of her somber up and stop laughing. She smirked, knowing that the next words would make him do whatever she wanted. All his attention was fixed rapidly on her. She leaned in closer, wanting to see the look of shock up close in his eyes.

"The book of prophecies." His eyes widened and she could feel his whole body stiffen and his magic flare instinctively in shock. She took this as a sign to continue.

"The great book. Containing every piece of information known to man about every single prophecy ever made." She smiled. "Including yours. Can you even _begin_ to imagine the grief and destruction it could cause if it fell into the wrong hands?" and shook her head in mock worry.

"That book is just a legend." He said in a short, almost constrained, strangled way. "I don't believe you." Though his tone stated the opposite.

"Take that choice," she shrugged her dainty shoulders. "And on your head be it when I sell it to someone.

"You're _selling_ it?!" he said in a fevered, half crazed, whisper, that made the two dancing partners next to falter their steps in shock. "Morgana are you _mad_?! That book has knowledge of you in there aswell! If that book falls into the wrong hands _you_ would be as damned as the rest of us."

"Damned maybe, but a whole deal richer aswell. But as the kind and generous human being that I am, im offering it to you first and foremost. I would have thought you would be pleased to own such an item." She said rolling her eyes. But really, she was not surprised at all.

"I have no desire whatsoever to read that book." He whispered, and she wondered whether she was talking to himself or her. Oh dear, it seemed she had made the man gone mad. She knew of the dangers that book possessed, and she knew that he was included in a large part of them. More importantly so did he. Anyone else with that knowledge might as well be able to see the future, and be able to shape it to his will.

"Read it, store it, burn it, do whatever you want I don't care." She drawled, fainting nonchalance. "It's yours if you give me access to those records I need. I don't even want to keep them; all I want is a peek until I find out what im looking for. And then, I will leave you alone I give you my word."

"And how do I know you're not going to use that knowledge to cause even more pain and misery than that book? How do I know that with it you're not going to attack Camelot? Attack the king? Attack the Queen? My friends?" Oh great she thought. We have normal, calculating, Merlin back. She _had_ hoped the madness would last long enough for him to agree but there we go.

"Rest easy, this time at least im not out to destroy your precious Camelot. I merely want to settle an old score with someone I know. Someone that I cannot find without the help of your records." The mans face swam in her mind, the man who had held her captive over the years. The one who had tortured her, prosecuted her, shamed her, and yet she had escaped. She was still better than him after all that.

"And why, might I ask, do you want to find him?" Merlin's voice brought her back to the present, and she knew that her anger and hatred, not at him, but at that man, shone and burned through her eyes.

"Let's just say that I owe him a year or two of hell. Im sure your use to keeping secrets from your masters by now judging the fact that you're here, so I have no choice but to trust _you_ of all people. And you have no choice but to trust me. So. Do we have a deal?" they broke apart, her hand held out for him to shake

It might have been the look in her eye, or maybe, just maybe, one tiny bit left of remorse for her left in his heart, whatever it was, Merlin made the split second decision. He looked at her with his kaleidoscopic eyes, as if he was staring into her soul, figuring her out. They had stopped dancing, song ended. Whatever song it was she did not care or notice. The only two people absolutely still in the hall, staring at each-other amidst the hustle and bustle of moving silks and people moving over to the banqueting table. Merlin looked down at Morgana's outstretched hand as if it held the very secrets of the universe inside its palm. And, much to Morgana's surprise, instead of shaking it, he instead held it gently as if it was the most delicate thing in the universe and brought it to his lips to kiss the top of it. He looked back to Morgana's eyes, resolute, calm and fiery.

"Deal."

**GAHHHH what do you think? Im not sure about the ending, it might just be my Mergana heart coming out to play. Im going to say this is a one shot but going to mark it as incomplete, because it does have potential for more chapters. However, I am TERRIBLE at writing more than one shots because plot bunnies run away with my life (and stories) so im not going to promise anything! This is why im so chuffed with this story because it's the longest ive ever written (2,439 words!). Ive spent till two in the morning writing and editing this so the least you can do is review just a quick word is all im asking not an essay! (God I know how painful THEY can be…) Anyway! Got a couple of ideas for new stories on the way… exited about them! And remember guys! TWO MONTHS TILL SERIES 5! **

**xxx**


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